Northwest attempts to remedy cancellation problems

It has been an uncertain summer for Northwest Airlines' passengers. Pilot shortages prompted the nation's fifth-largest airline to axe hundreds of flights in late June and late July inconveniencing tens of thousands of passengers. The cancellations occurred at the height of the summer travel season, a season that has already evidenced a shortage of seats industrywide, as aircraft push back from airport gates packed.

Now, Northwest, recently emergent from Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, is trying to do something about the reliability issue.

First, the carrier has reached a tentative deal with the Air Line Pilots Association that it hopes will incentivize pilots to work more than 80 hours per week.

Second, Northwest is calling back all of its laid-off pilots. It's a move that will help eventually, but won't have that big an impact in the short term. It takes more than a month of training to bring pilots back up to speed. NW (that's the carrier's code) has already cut back its flight schedule to compensate for the lack of pilots.

Northwest says that pilot absenteeism prompted the cancellations that especially hit passengers flying to, through, or from its hubs at Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP), Detroit (DTW), and Memphis (MEM). One reason pilots may have been absent from the cockpits is fatigue. Before NW entered bankruptcy they flew between 70 and 80 per month. Now, many reach 90 hours regularly.

One Northwest A320 pilot with whom this reporter spoke at the start of the summer called morale among the carrier's cockpit crewmembers "poor".

© Cheapflights Ltd Jerry Chandler